PEORIA — If some Peoria City Council members have opinions about Mayor Jim Ardis’ battles against a parody Twitter account, perhaps they’ll reveal them Tuesday night.

Jim Montelongo didn’t wait.

“I want to hear from the mayor first — a full report, day by day, minute by minute — on what happened,” the 4th District representative said Monday. “I’m waiting to hear his side of the story before I jump to some conclusions.”

Montelongo also said he wants to hear from police officials regarding the raid last week on a West Bluff residence that led to an arrest for marijuana possession but no charges related to the Twitter account.

“I think the mayor owes a lot of answers to lots of questions about what happened, and so does the Police Department,” Montelongo said. “I think they’ve done a great deal of damage to the city and its reputation, not just here but all over America.”

A regular meeting of the council is to begin at 6:15 p.m. Tuesday. The agenda is long. Included are zoning changes related to construction of athletic fields at Peoria High School, a contentious annexation of a 34-acre Northwest Peoria parcel and public hearings on creation of taxing bodies to help finance the proposed Louisville Slugger Sports Complex.

But Montelongo suggested the Ardis-Twitter showdown, which has become a subject of national attention, also will be discussed.

Among five council members contacted over the past few days, Montelongo was the only one who spoke for publication. Others did not want to be quoted or did not return messages.

Montelongo admitted he isn’t the foremost expert in using Twitter, an Internet messaging system. As of Monday night, his account had only 10 followers. But he said he knew almost immediately the tweets from the parody Ardis account were not from the mayor.

“To me, it was obvious,” Montelongo said. “The things that were being said, there’s no way that’s the mayor that I know.”

Ardis said part of his motivation for pursuing the Twitter perpetrators was because people who don’t know him might believe the tweets were genuine. He also said the tweets were obscene and offensive.

But Montelongo said the police reaction in this case might have been out of proportion.

“The thing that worries me is there’s been kind of a series of things that have happened in the past, and this is just another one,” Montelongo said in reference to the futile police prostitution sting last year that involved former 5th District Councilman Dan Irving. “How many more are going to come?”

Page 2 of 2 - Nick Vlahos can be reached at 686-3285 or nvlahos@pjstar.com. Follow him on Twitter @VlahosNick.